Late night television is a good escape for many of us who want to catch the news in a funny way while also seeing some of our favorite actors and musicians either talk about their work or perform. The hosts duke it out with their monologues, trying for the funniest jokes to gain an audience in a timeslot when many are already asleep. But with humor, where must you draw the line between funny and offensive?

On June 12th of this year, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” shot in Chicago. In his monologue, O’Brien told the audience about one of the city’s nicknames: “the City of the Big Shoulders.” He continued on this vein by joking that name “…was better than the name they almost went with… ‘the unconvincing tranny.’” Following the show’s airing, a backlash was felt on Twitter from Janet Mock, editor at People magazine and Jamie Clayton, an actress who recently appeared on HBO’s Hung as Kyla in Season 3, both successful trans* women who felt wrong by the comment. After being contacted by GLAAD about the offensive nature of the joke, O’Brien released this statement: “My staff and I had no idea that term was offensive to the transgender community. We apologize and you will not be hearing that term again.” In 2009, though, O’Brien participated in a sketch on his then-show which involved him being trapped in a transsexual strip club where trans* women were depicted as mustached strippers.

Humor is hard to navigate. It is difficult to find that line between humorous and offensive. The media is an outlet which has the power to navigate people’s thoughts towards a community, and O’Brien’s attempt at humor here crossed a line, a line he had previously crossed. GLAAD stepped in to ensure the offensive material was removed, and O’Brien did apologize. Perhaps being within the community has given me automatic knowledge of derogatory terms, but when has tranny ever not been offensive? I find the apology almost more offensive than the attempted joke itself. What about you? Did you know tranny was a derogatory term? I’m just trying to understand the logic.

Laura Fraser, the actress who played Cat in Lip Service, will play in the season 5 of Breaking Bad.

According to AMC, Breaking Bad follows protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher who lives in New Mexico with his wife (Anna Gunn) and teenage son (RJ Mitte) who has cerebral palsy. White is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of two years left to live. With a new sense of fearlessness based on his medical prognosis, and a desire to secure his family's financial security, White chooses to enter a dangerous world of drugs and crime and ascends to power in this world. The series explores how a fatal diagnosis such as White's releases a typical man from the daily concerns and constraints of normal society and follows his transformation from mild family man to a kingpin of the drug trade.

Executive producer Vince Gilligan told Entertainment Weekly that Fraser will play an "important" character starting from the second episode of the season 5. Gilligan describes Lydia as a "former associate of Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) who’s integral to the proceedings of season 5," as well as someone who is "nervous about her place in the world."

The season 5 will premiere on July Sunday July 15 at 10/9c on AMC. Watch the trailer:

Documentaries are a great way to come to new information, whether about life, science, or gender. They create, in the time of about an hour or more, a look into a specific subject using different methods: interviews, the following of a subject, intriguing graphics, and multiple other approaches. Recently, I have watched a couple of gender documentaries, Genderf*kation: A Gender Emancipation and Gender Redesigner.

Genderf*kation, directed by Chris Durant, concentrates on interviews of gender-variant individuals in Minnesota and their experiences with coming out, transitioning, and dysphoria. Durant portrays the difficulty of living outside of the gender binary through questions about family, jobs, and school, but there is a good balance of hopeful stories versus the disheartening. He manages to create a portrait of the community which not only gives an accurate account of the realities of living a life outside of gender norms but also does so without falling into the overly depressing as so many trans* movies and stories tend to lean. While often being accurate, the predominance of violence and sadness within portrayals of trans* life in this media can be overwhelming. Yes, we do need that knowledge and to see these stories; they are powerful and compelling. But we also need depictions from which we can draw hope. I appreciate Durant’s ability to demonstrate the possibility for that dynamic without compromising the truth in the representation. You can learn more about Genderf*kation on IMDb or purchase it on their website.

Gender Redesigner began as a pilot for a LGBTQ* news show which then transformed into a documentary following filmmaker Johnny Bergmann’s friend fAe—who was originally the anchor of the show—as he transitions. The film begins with the backstory of their friendship and then evolves to encapsulate his thought process before coming out, a small bit of his experience on T, top surgery, and living with his parents in a small farming community during his transition. Bergmann creates a film which gives a view into what transition can be—the trials and rewards—while also attempting to educate those who are viewers from the outside, such as he himself originally was. Although some of the language within the film was troubling, Bergmann’s willingness to portray both fAe’s determination and the confusion and learning of those around him develops an interchange between the two sides which allows both trans* individuals and friends and allies to gain an insight into the process for everyone who is a part of it. As people, we need to appreciate that how our interactions affect ourselves and those around us, and this film helps to facilitate that understanding. You can purchase and learn more about Gender Redesigner at Outcast Films.

Only one month before the beginning of the season 3 of The Real L Word which will begin on July 12th and Showtime has thus released a new teaser in which the girls of Los Angeles meet, with cautious at the beginning, the girls of Brooklyn but all is settled with who? With Whitney of course, watch!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a trans* character on Glee, Unique. I expressed concern about how the creators were going to handle the presentation of Unique’s storyline and how realistic it would appear because despite Glee’s track record of presenting those who in other outlets are underrepresented, sometimes the verisimilitude of these storylines can be sadly lacking. I was hoping Unique’s storyline would follow the more realistic story of Santana coming out to her grandmother, who was not accepting. Unfortunately, most people who come out do not receive a welcoming reception from family, so to present the situation in such a way more realistically depicted coming out, which is one of the most daunting things people in the LGBTQ* community face. We need representation in the media to allow people from without the community to see what it is really like to be a part of the community. Creating that connection can help us in steps toward equality.

I wanted to revisit Unique because she came back to finish out her storyline for the season, and I wanted to assess the validity of how the story was handled, as well as discuss her perhaps coming back for next season. Unique came back into the story to end her two episode arch for “Nationals,” in which her Glee club, Vocal Adreneline, competes against the New Directions for the national title. Throughout the episode, there are references to how Unique has become a sensation after her performance at regionals, receiving a key to the city among other accolades. This decision on the part of the writers follows their need create the happy ending, the everything-turns-out-okay-for-the-different-people approach, which is something we need as a community, those moments of life can be better. Because the truth is that being different is hard and sometimes even dangerous.

Glee has been great for some many people because it does disperse that hope for many of us who are different, within the LGBTQ* community or just the theatre kids or the band geeks or any of the other people who just do not quite fit in at school. We need those stories. We need that hope, but we also need to be represented clearly. It is a hard balance to strike. In Unique’s case, the writers go a bit further than they have with some of the other character’s triumphs. This illusion could be due to the very brief interaction the audience has with this character. For instance, Kurt’s transformation from season one to season three and the change in his school environment were both very sweeping. Had those changes come about in two episodes, it would be rather disturbing, from closeted and bullied to out and proud and supported just would not make sense. The time between Unique’s two episodes within the world of Glee was probably somewhere between 2 and 4 months, which would make a bit more sense, but as an audience, we do not get that necessary sense of time. Generally, it is necessary to watch Glee with a certain suspension of disbelief. It is difficult to want so much from a show because the writers can only do so much to accommodate such an intricate world with music and create a (mostly) consistent storyline.

Besides performing, Unique’s main interaction within the episode is again with Kurt and Mercedes, who come to wish her luck. Unique is nervous to perform because she has become such a symbol for those who are different. There are just so many people depending on her to represent them, which does lean toward the ironic because that is really what Glee does for many people. Unique does find the strength to go on, again by being herself for herself. Not for any of those other people, though she remains conscious of them. Again, she kills it. “Pinball Wizard” is up there with some of my favorite Glee performances, though that may be influenced by the fact that I generally just love the song.

Kurt and Mercedes help Unique to be herself and to go on. Kurt even comes into the dressing room with a bit of a flamboyant “girl!”, which proves his acceptance of Unique, dispersing his previous issues with Unique’s identification (not explicit) of trans*. The heroes we have come to see in Kurt and Mercedes are redeemed by their now willing acceptance of someone beyond themselves who is different.

Because trans* issues are so far in the background of most media and news outlets, it is hard to criticize Glee for bringing in a character who is trans*. Representation is representation, and unlike Work It—the ABC show which tried to make light of trans* issues, was incredibly offensive, and thankfully ended up cancelled after airing only two of its six taped episodes—Unique has a positive storyline. She became a role model and a heroine in her own right. The writers also teased the possibility of Unique switching schools for next season, so perhaps we will see more of Unique and a more concrete storyline for the character in next season.

Alex Newell, who plays Unique was a runner up on The Glee Project. This year, The Glee Project includes a transman. You can learn more about him here. Hopefully this potential will bring about good things for trans* storylines within Glee next year, and if you want to watch The Glee Project to see how Tyler does, tune into Oxygen Tuesday June 10th at 10 to see the season premier. And let me know how you feel about Unique as a character? Does she represent you well? And what are your hopes for Glee next year with some of our favorite cast members perhaps on the way out with only Lea Michele confirmed for next year?

It is already the end of Lip Service. After only 6 episodes, the season 2 is already finished. Why lesbian series only have each time just a few episodes? Look, while waiting for this evening, here an extract of this last episode.